Vatican Aide Said to Protest Israeli Law on Registration of Jews

September 12, 1958

TEL AVIV (Sep. 11)

The newspaper Haboker asserted today that the Vatican’s representative in Israel, Msgr. Vargani, had submitted a written protest against the new Israeli registration regulations which permit anyone who considers himself a Jew to register as a Jew. The churchman was understood to have taken the position that to permit registration as a Jew without the religious ceremony was tantamount to inviting non-Jews to become Jews.

The Israeli authorities, according to the paper, consider the entire question as an internal matter for Israel and expect no foreign intervention.